Freshwater turtles are among the most threatened vertebrate groups globally, facing collection for food and traditional medicine, habitat loss, and the welfare burdens of illegal trade and captivity.
Freshwater turtles in the illegal trade experience severe welfare harms from capture to end destination. Capture often involves cruel methods including hook-and-line injury, trap trauma, and rough handling. Transportation involves overcrowding in bags or boxes with inadequate humidity, temperature, and ventilation — causing dehydration, skin abrasion, and high mortality. Surviving animals that enter the food or medicine trade are held in crowded tanks or slaughtered. Turtles that enter the pet trade from wild capture face stress from the transition to captivity, often combined with inadequate husbandry from uninformed owners. Conservation breeding and strict trade controls are essential for welfare as well as conservation — protecting wild turtles from the suffering of capture and trade is inseparable from preserving the species.